■;i9S  OF  PmicEr^ 

JUL    t 


^ 


REVIEW 


OF    A 


REPORT   OF   THE    COMMITTEE, 

TO  WHOM  WAS    REFERRED    THE    SEVERAL    PETITIONS 

ON    THE   SUBJECT   OF 

MAILS  ON  THE  SABBATH, 

PRESENTED    TO   THE 

Senate  of  tije  2lnltet(  States, 

JANUARY  16,  18189, 

y 

BY  THE  HON.  MR.  JOHNSON,  OF  KENTUCKY, 

CHAIRMAN    OF    SAID    COMMITTEE. 


1829. 


REVIEW. 


Br  the  title  and  design  of  our  work ;  by  the  memory  of  those 
who  fled  from  Holland  to  Plymouth,  because  in  that  land  of  mer- 
chandise they  could  not  enjoy  a  quiet  Sabbadi,  or  accustom  dieir 
children  to  keep  it  holy ;  by  all  the  blessings,  civil  and  religious, 
w^hich  exist  in  close  alliance  with  that  day,  whicli  have  been  our 
birthright,  and  are  die  just  inheritance  of  the  future  generations  of 
our  children ;  and  by  all  our  obligations,  as  patriots  to  our  country, 
and  as  Christians  to  our  God,  we  consider  ourselves  called  upon 
to  animadvert  upon  the  facts,  principles  and  reasonings  contained  in 
this  Report. 

We  cherish  an  ardent  attachment  to  the  principles  of  our  repub- 
lican institutions,  and  believe  that,  in  alliance  with  the  Gospel,  they 
are  destined  to  emancipate  the  world ;  and,  without  permitting  our- 
selves to  participate  in  the  collisions  incident  to  popular  elections, 
we  hold  ourselves  bound,  and  declare  ourselves  disposed,  to  render 
to  the  constituted  authorities  of  our  nation,  from  time  to  time,  our 
prayers,  and  our  cheerful  co-operation,  in  all  diings  which  are  lawful 
and  right.  It  is  the  happiness  of  our  nation,  diat  so  extensively  the 
people  read  and  think  for  themselves  ;  and  the  glory  of  our  govern- 
ment, that  it  is  so  accessible  to  the  people,  and  feels  with  such  ease, 
superceding  the  necessity  of  revolution,  the  slightest  movement  of  the 
public  will.  The  press,  which  in  Europe  is  struggling  on  to  liberty 
amid  brisding  bayonets,  is  with  us  free ;  and  those  accommodations 
to  public  sentiment,  which  there  can  be  secured  only  by  innovation 
upon  ancient  usages,  are  obtained  here  with  all  the  safety  which 
appertains  to  public  discussion,  and  a  judicious  and  peaceful  legis- 
lation. The  people  have  only  to  ascertain  what  will  be  for  their 
good,  and  they  are  blessed  with  a  government  whose  honor  and 
happiness  it  is  to  bestow  it. 

It  is  both  admitted,  and  by  us  maintained,  diat  animadversions 
upon  public  men  and  measures,  legislative  or  judicial,  should  be 
conducted  with  candor  and  respect.  But  the  maxim  diat  no  wrong 
can  be  done  by  men  in  authority,  belongs  to  the  monarchy  from 
which  our  fathers  fled,  and  not  to  the  republic  which  they  institut- 
ed. In  our  animadversions,  therefore,  upon  die  Report  of  this 
Committee,  we  both  exercise  a  right,  and  perform  a  duty,  which 
belongs  to  us  as  cidzens  and  as  Chi'isdans. 

We  enter  upon  diis  duty  without  delay,  because  the  principles  of 


4 

the  Report  are  fraught  with  too  much  evil,  and  the  reasonings  which 
recommend  them  are  too  specious  and  coincident  with  popular 
inclination,  to  permit  the  bane  to  circulate  long  without  the  anti- 
dote ;  it  being  much  easier  to  prevent  the  introduction  of  poison 
into  the  body  politic,  than  to  expel  it  when  it  shall  once  have  ob- 
tained a  brisk  circulation.  We  are  the  more  constrained  to  speak, 
because  in  our  view,  the  Sabbath  is  the  mainspring  of  our  repub- 
lican institutions,  every  one  of  which,  without  its  moral  power, 
will  most  assuredly  run  down  ;  and  because,  if  the  tide  of  pro- 
fanation, set  in  motion  by  governmental  example,  continues  to  roll 
on  for  fourteen  years  to  come,  as  it  has  done  for  the  fourteen 
which  are  past,  it  may  be  impossible  to  preserve  to  the  nation  the 
moral  blessings  of  that  day.  If,  with  twelve  millions  of  people,  the 
breaking  forth,  which  at  first  was  but  a  drop,  and  then  a  puny 
stream,  has  become  a  flood,  sweeping  all  mounds  and  landmarks 
before  it,  what  power  shall  stay  it,  when  urged  on,  as  in  the  course 
of  the  present  century  it  will  be,  by  a  population  of  thirty,  sixty, 
or  even  eighty  millions.  We  are  sure  that  the  people  of  this 
nation  would  not,  by  any  public  act,  abolish  the  Sabbath ;  and 
we  are  equally  confident  that  to  all  purposes  of  national  morality 
it  will  be  done,  unless  a  more  efficient  public  sentiment  can  be 
arrayed  in  favor  of  its  preservation.  To  our  apprehension,  the 
question  now  before  Congress  and  the  nation  is.  Abolish,  or  not 
abolish,  the  Christian  Sabbath.  Of  such  a  decision  we  dare  not, 
in  time  or  in  eternity,  meet  the  result,  without  having  done  all  which 
heaven  has  enabled  us  to  do,  to  produce  a  correct  decision.  Be- 
tween the  cradle  and  the  grave  of  liberty  we  take  our  stand  ;  and 
to  the  nation,  and  to  heaven,  we  here  pledge  ourselves,  never  to 
abandon  our  post,  or  to  keep  silence,  till  the  Sabbath,  the  palla- 
dium of  our  hopes,  is  rescued,  or  the  grave  has  closed  upon  our 
country's  glory.  And  these,  we  have  cause  to  know,  are  the  views 
and  feelings  which  have  waked  up  the  nation,  and  called  forth  the 
united,  spontaneous  burst  of  importunity  which  has  flowed  in  upon 
Congress. 

The  question,  however,  is  not  to  be  settled  by  mere  feeling ; 
much  less  by  the  argumentum  ad  invidiam,  on  either  side.  It  is 
manifest  that  the  people,  as  yet,  do  not  thoroughly  understand  the 
subject,  and  when  they  do,  we  have  great  confidence  that,  under 
God,  they  will  decide  right.  Before  we  proceed,  therefore,  to  a 
particular  consideration  of  the  Report,  we  shall  endeavor  to  afford 
to  our  readers  the  means  of  forming  a  correct  judgement,  in  re- 
spect to  the  real  and  indispensable  efficacy  of  the  Sabbath  to  the 
maintenance  of  our  civil  and  religious  institutions. 

It  has  been  said  often  by  the  advocates  of  a  liberal  exposition 
of  the  fourth  command,  that  '  the  Sabbath  was  made  for  man.' 
This  is  true,  but  in  a  sense  directly  the  opposite  of  that  which  is 
intended.     The   Sabbath  was  made  (i.  e.  it  was  instituted  and  set 


apart  by  heaven)  for  the  spiritual  use  and  benefit  of  man.  To  be 
made  for  man,  denotes  its  universal  necessity  and  universal  and 
perpetual  oblio;ation  :  for  the  term  man  is  generic,  and  includes 
the  race,  of  all  ages  and  nations.  The  declaration  '  the  Sabbath 
was  made  for  man,'  implies  also  that  it  was  bestowed  as  a  blessing, 
and  not  imposed  as  a  penance — a  mitigation,  and  not  an  augmen- 
tation of  the  curse,  '  In  the  sweat  of  thy  face  shalt  thou  eat  bread 
till  thou  return  to  the  earth.'  The  six  days  were  made  for  man 
as  really  as  the  seventh  ;  but  they  are  appropriated  to  labor,  while 
the  seventh  is  given  as  a  season  in  which  to  suspend  his  toils  and 
cares,  and  furnishes  to  the  laboring  classes  of  the  world  almost 
their  only  opportunity  for  intellectual  and  moral  cultivation.  Thus, 
it  is  said,  at  the  close  of  creation,  that  God  blessed  and  sanctified 
the  Sabbath.  But  to  sanctify  times,  places,  and  things,  is,  according 
to  scriptural  usage,  to  set  them  apart  from  a  secular  to  a  religious 
use ;  as  the  sons  of  Levi  were  sanctified  to  the  priesthood,  and 
the  tabernacle  and  temple  to  the  worship  of  God,  and  all  their 
utensils  to  religious  uses. 

The  necessity  of  some  respite  from  the  ordinary  vocations  of 
life  the  Report  admits  to  be  the  "  voice  of  universal  nature  ;"  and 
the  wisdom  and  benevolence  of  consecrating  a  seventh  part  of  time 
to  this  rest,  appear  in  its  experimental  adaptation  to  the  physical, 
intellectual  and  moral  necessities  of  man.  Experience  has  ascer- 
tained that  the  frames  of  men  and  animals  are  incapable  of  unin- 
termitted  action.  Beside  the  repose  of  the  night,  a  periodical  rest 
of  the  Sabbath  is  demanded.  Those  who  labor  through  die  sum- 
mer, without  intermission,  accomplish  less,  with  much  greater  ex- 
haustion, than  those  who  observe  the  Sabbath.  Extended  journies 
are  performed  with  more  expedition,  and  less  fatigue,  by  man  and 
beast,  with,  than  without,  the  rest  of  the  Sabbath.  It  was  ascer- 
tained in  France,  by  experiment,  that  the  labor  of  nine  days,  instead 
of  six,  increased  the  exhaustion  of  man,  and  diminished  the  aggre- 
gate amount  of  labor.  The  reason  is  obvious.  No  device  of  man 
can  make  a  pound  weigh  more  than  a  pound,  or  limited  strength 
endure  but  a  hmited  degree  of  action  ;  and  he  who  made  the  frame 
of  man  prepared  it  to  sustain  healthful  action  six  days  in  the  week, 
and  no  more. 

It  is  manifest,  that  the  mind  has  its  limits  of  vigorous  and  health- 
ful application  to  study,  or  to  business,  and  that  all  taxation  beyond 
the  exigencies  of  six  days  reacts,  in  nervous  prostration,  mental 
aberration,  or  mortality.  God  has  set  the  bounds  to  muscular  and 
mental  effort  which  they  cannot  pass ;  and  though  man,  impatient 
of  constraint,  has  rushed  upon  them,  and  sought  to  pass,  Hke  the 
waves  dashing  upon  the  iron-bound  shore,  he  alone  has  been  bro- 
ken, while  the  ordinances  of  heaven  have  '  maintained  their  place'. 

It  is  chiefly,  however,  in  a  moral  respect  that  the  Sabbath  was 


made  for  man.  For  all  experience  has  shown  that  cessation  from 
labor,  without  religious  and  moral  instruction,  results  in  dissipation 
and  excess,  more  injurious  to  mind  and  body,  than  uninteiinitted 
toil.  The  Sabbath,  as  a  mere  holiday,  has  always  exerted  a  most 
terrific  demoralizing  influence  ;  and  there  is  no  alternative  for  man, 
but  to  keep  it  holy,  or  waste  away  by  the  toil  or  the  dissipation  of 
its  violation. 

That  man  is  a  free  agent,  to  be  governed  by  law,  and  not 
by  force,  is  a  matter  of  universal  consciousness.  That  the  moral 
law  contained  in  the  decalogue  is  the  rule  of  duty,  and  would, 
if  obeyed,  constitute  perfect  society,  is  admitted  by  Christians. 
The  entire  influence  of  this  law  depends  however  on  its  being 
known,  explained,  and  pressed  earnestly  and  often  upon  the  at- 
tention of  men.  It  is  the  design  of  the  Sabbath  to  give  omni- 
presence and  energy  to  the  moral  law,  by  convening,  one  day  in 
seven,  the  population  of  the  world  to  hear  the  expositions  of  its 
precepts  and  sanctions.  It  is  not  to  be  denied,  also,  that  man  is  a 
sinner,  and  must  be  reclaimed  and  pardoned,  to  fit  him  for  heaven; 
and  the  Sabbath  is  given  to  him  as  a  day  of  rest,  in  which  he  may 
attend  to  such  instructions  as  God  has  provided  to  make  him  wise 
unto  salvation.  But  the  influence  of  both  law  and  Gospel  to  ben- 
efit man  for  time  or  for  eternity  is  impaired,  just  in  proportion  as 
the  Sabbath  is  diverted  from  sacred,  and  is  devoted  to  secular 
uses.  To  establish  this  position,  nothing  is  necessary,  but  a  con- 
cise consideration  of  the  state  of  human  society  in  respect  to  each 
command  of  the  decalogue,  where  the  Sabbath  does  not  give  pre- 
sence and  influence  to  the  law  of  God  and  the  precepts  of  the 
Gospel.  We  will  name  the  commands  in  order,  and  illustrate,  by 
an  appeal  to  facts,  the  state  of  society  in  respect  to  each,  where 
the  Sabbath  does  not  impart  its  energy  to  tlie  moral  law. 

"  Thou  shalt  have  no  other  gods  before  ?«e."  But  unblessed  by 
the  Sabbath,  there  is  not  a  spot  on  earth,  where  the  understanding 
is  enlightened  by  just  conceptions  of  the  character  of  God,  or  his 
worship  maintained.  Or  the  hearts  and  lives  of  men  purified  by  the 
Gospel.  Everywhere,  as  the  Sabbath  has  disappeared,  has  dark- 
ness covered  the  earth,  and  gross  darkness  the  people ;  and  though 
we  exult  in  our  hberties  and  superior  illumination,  in  one  century, 
without  the  Sabbath,  would  our  sun  go  down,  and  all  our  civil  and 
religious  institutions  perish. 

"  Thou  shalt  not  make  unto  thee  any  graven  imaged  But 
where  has  the  Sabbath  departed,  and  idolatry  not  entered  ?  The 
reluctance  of  man  to  retain  God  in  his  knowledge  is  notorious. 
It  is  only  by  the  evidence  of  miracles,  and  the  energy  imparted 
by  the  Sabbath  to  divine  institutions,  that  the  name  and  worship 
of  God  have  been  maintained  upon  the.  earth.  The  Jews,  pre- 
vious to  their  captivity  at  Babylon,  were  strangely  addicted  to  the 
worship  of  idols  ;  but  after  their  return,  when  the  synagogue  wor- 


ship  was  established,  the  Sabbath  more  strictly  observed,  and  the 
law  of  God  read  and  explained  every  recurring  seventh  day,  they 
never  again  relapsed  into  idolatry. 

The  Sabbath  is  the  wall  of  partition  between  Christian  and 
heathen  lands ; — the  sun  which  enlightens  the  one,  while  all  with- 
out is  the  region  of  the  shadow  of  death.  The  enemies  of  reve- 
lation revile  the  Sabbath,  as  a  day  subservient  to  superstition  and 
the  clergy  ;  but  let  them  turn  their  backs  on  its  hated  light,  and  go 
where  its  glimmerings  do  not  reach,  and  everywhere  they  will  wit- 
ness the  ignorance  of  the  multitude,  and  the  uncontrolcd  despotism 
of  an  idol  priesthood.  Idolatry  has  retreated  before  the  hated  light 
of  holy  time,  and  now  lies  in  ambush,  waiting  to  return,  whenever 
it  shall  be  extinguished.  The  enemies  of  revelation  and  the  Sab- 
bath are  in  fact  the  pioneers  of  idolatry,  with  all  its  abominable 
superstitions,  impurides,  and  blood. 

"  Thou  shalt  not  take  the  name  of  the  Lord  thy  God  in  vain,^^ 
The  entire  influence  of  the  divine  government  depends  on  the 
reverence  and  love  for  God  which  prevail  among  his  subjects. 
Wherever  respect  for  God  declines — wherever  his  name,  attri- 
butes, word,  and  worship,  are  treated  with  irreverence  and  levity, 
there  the  obedience  of  the  heart  has  no  place,  and  atheism  itself 
could  scarcely  be  more  licentious  in  its  results.  Profaneness  is 
ever  associated  in  some  form,  and  more  commonly  in  many  forms, 
with  immorality  ;  so  that  universally,  the  more  profaneness  abounds, 
the  more  dissolute  is  the  community  in  which  it  prevails.  But 
among  what  classes  of  the  community  does  the  profanation  of  the 
name  of  God  most  abound  ?  Never  among  those,  as  a  class,  who 
are  reverential  and  strict  in  their  observance  of  the  Sabbath,  but 
among  those,  almost  exclusively,  who  lightly  esteem  and  violate 
that  holy  day. 

"  Honor  thy  father  and  thy  mother,  that  thy  days  may  he  long 
in  the  land  which  the  Lord  thy  God  giveth  theey  But  what  is 
the  treatment  of  parents  by  their  children,  where  no  Sabbath  pre- 
serves natural  affection,  corroborates  parental  by  divine  authority, 
invigorates  conscience,  and  forms  a  public  sentiment  which  renders 
fiHal  ingratitude  disreputable  ^  In  lands  nominally  Christian,  chil- 
dren who  are  farthest  removed  from  the  influence  of  the  Sabbath, 
are  most  frequently  irreligious,  self-willed,  '  heady,  highminded, 
disobedient  to  parents,  without  natural  affection,  implacable,  un- 
merciful;' while  often,  by  their  abusive  conduct,  they  destroy 
domestic  peace,  and  by  their  vices  and  crimes  bring  themselves 
and  the  grey  hairs  of  their  parents  with  sorrow  to  the  grave. 
In  pagan  lands,  the  insubordination  of  children  to  parents  is 
notorious,  and  the  affections  and  comforts  of  the  family  state,  as 
they  are  enjoyed  in  Christian  lands,  are  scarcely  known.  It  is  a 
common  event  for  children,  when  their  parents  have  become  old, 
and  can  be  of  no  further  use  to  them,  to  carry  them  forth  as  a 
nuisance,  and  lay  them  down  under  the  canopy  of  heaven,  by  the 


8 

river,  or  the  way  side,  to  die  the  lingering,  intolerable  death  of 
starvation. 

"  Thou  shalt  not  kill.''''  But  where  the  Sabbath  does  not  give 
presence  and  energy  to  the  moral  law,  how  cheap  and  insecure  is 
the  life  of  man  ?  Duelling,  as  a  general  fact,  prevails  among  Sab- 
bath breakers.  It  is  doubtful  whether  an  individual  can  be  found, 
of  the  multitude  who  have  fought,  who  was  accustomed  to  pay  a 
strict  regard  to  holy  time.  And  where  do  those  assaults  most 
abound,  which  indicate  the  absence  of  principle,  and  the  predomi- 
nance of  intemperance,  and  rage,  and  brutal  force  ?  Precisely 
where  the  Sabbath  is  least  revered,  and  the  tavern  has  supplanted 
the  sanctuary  of  God.  Where,  with  horrid  frequency,  and  more 
horrid  impunity,  do  those  assassinations  multiply,  which  hold  life 
in  jeopardy  ?  It  is  where  the  Sabbath,  if  known  at  all,  exists  in 
name  only,  as  a  day  of  superstitious  forms,  and  is,  in  fact,  a  holi- 
day, more  destructive  to  morals  than  the  other  six.  In  many  such 
places,  the  work  of  assassination  has  become  a  profession.  For 
a  small  sum,  a  desperado  can  be  hired  to  take  away  life,  and  can 
find  a  sanctuary  from  justice  in  the  church  ;  and,  for  a  small  por- 
tion of  his  gain,  can  be  absolved  from  guilt  by  the  ghostly  priest- 
hood. 

There  is  a  city  in  our  own  land,  in  which,  a  few  years  since,  an 
appalling  number  of  assassinations  took  place  in  six  months,  and 
every  one  of  them  with  entire  impunity.  But  there  was  no  Sab- 
bath there,  wdiich  gave  presence  and  influence  to  the  government  of 
God,  or  tone  to  public  sentiment,  or  energy  to  the  civil  law.  And 
whoever  reads  the  account  of  assassinations  and  murders  which 
are  fast  becoming  a  part  of  our  weekly  intelligence,  and  observes 
the  geographical  location  of  these  deeds  of  blood,  will  perceive 
that  they  abound  chiefly  in  the  twilight  of  religious  knowledge,  and 
where  the  Sabbath  sheds  upon  the  population  but  a  faint  and  glim- 
mering light.  In  most  unevangelized  nations,  infanticide  is  com- 
mon, and  often  prevails  to  such  an  extent  that  one  half  the  chil- 
dren born  are  destroyed,  and  not  unfrequently  by  the  hand  of  her 
who  bore  them.  In  nearly  all  heathen  nations  have  human  sacri- 
fices been  offered,  and  in  many  are  offered  still ;  and  in  all,  the 
life  of  man  is  set  at  naught  with  an  inhumanity  unparalleled  even 
in  the  worst  papts  of  nominal  Christendom.  In  India,  every  year, 
multitudes  of  widow's  burn  on  the  funeral  pile  with  their  dead  hus- 
bands. It  is  said,  indeed,  to  be  done  voluntarily  ;  but  it  is  a  com- 
pulsory choice — the  disgrace  and  persecution  for  a  refusal  being 
more  dreadful  than  death.  In  Rome,  thousands  were  sometimes 
murdered  in  a  month,  in  the  shows  of  the  gladiators,  merely  for  the 
public  amusement.  But  no  Sabbath  had  brought  to  their  ears  the 
divine  prohibition,  '  Thou  shalt  not  kill.'  Until  the  light  of  the 
Sabbath  arose  on  that  dark  empire,  a  vast  proportion  of  the  popu- 
lation were  slaves,  over  whom  the  master  held  the  power  of  life 


and  death,  and  whom,  in  passion  or  caprice,  he  often  killed  and 
cast  into  fish  ponds,  to  fatten  the  fish  of  his  table. 

Buchanan,  in  his  Christian  Researches,  writes  thus : 

"  Buddruck,  May  30,  1806.  We  know  that  we  are  approach- 
ing Juggernaut,  (and  yet  we  are  more  than  fifty  miles  from  it)  by 
the  human  bones  which  we  have  seen  for  some  days  strewed  by 
the  way.  Near  the  pilgrim's  caravansera,  there  are  more  than  a 
hundred  skulls.  The  dogs,  jackalls  and  vultures  seem  to  live 
here  on  human  prey.  The  vultures  exhibit  a  shocking  tameness. 
This  Buddruck  is  a  horrid  place.  Wherever  I  turn  my  eyes,  I 
meet  death  in  some  shape  or  other." 

"Juggernaut,  June  14.  I  have  seen  Juggernaut.  The  scene 
at  Buddruck  is  but  the  vestibule.  No  record  of  ancient  or  modern 
history,  can  give  an  adequate  idea  of  this  valley  of  death.  The 
idol  of  Juggernaut  has  been  considered  as  the  Moloch  of  the  pre- 
sent age,  and  he  is  justly  so  named  ;  for  the  sacrifices  offered  up 
to  him  by  self-devotement  are  not  less  criminal,  perhaps  not  less 
numerous,  than  those  recorded  of  the  Moloch  of  Canaan."  "  I  be- 
held another  distressing  scene  this  morning.  A  poor  woman  lying 
dead,  or  nearly  dead,  and  her  two  children  by  her,  looking  at  the 
dogs  and  vultures  which  were  near.  The  people  passed  without 
noticing  the  children.  I  asked  them  where  was  their  home?  They 
said,  '  they  had  no  home  but  where  their  mother  was.'  O,  there 
is  no  pity  at  Juggernaut,  no  mercy,  no  tenderness  of  heart  in  Mo- 
loch's kingdom  ;" — and  he  mJght  have  said,  because  there  is  no 
Sabbath  there. 

When  the  Sabbath  was  abolished  in  France,  the  Mighty  God, 
whose  being  they  had  denied,  and  whose  worship  they  abolished, 
stood  aloof,  and  gave  them  up  ;  and  a  scene  of  proscription,  and 
assassination,  and  desolation  ensued,  unparalleled  in  the  annals  of 
the  civilized  world.  In  the  city  of  Paris,  there  w^ere  in  1803, 
eight  hundred  and  seven  suicides  and  murders.  Among  the  crimi- 
nals executed,  there  were  seven  fathers  who  had  poisoned  their 
children,  ten  husbands  who  had  murdered  their  wives,  six  wives 
who  had  poisoned  their  husbands,  and  fifteen  children  who  had 
destroyed  their  parents. 

"  Thou  sliaJt  not  commit  adultery:'  But  in  many  nations  lying 
without  the  pale  of  Christendom,  prom-iscuous  concubinage  has  pre- 
vailed to  the  annihilation  of  domestic  purity,  and  all  the  sweet  chari- 
ties of  the  family  state.  At  the  Sandwich  Islands,  licentiousness  and 
disease  w^ere  fast  exterminating  the  wretched  population,  until  the 
Sabbath  and  the  glad  tidings  of  the  Gospel  came  to  their  aid. 
The  impurities  of  heathenism  cannot  be  named — cannot  be  even 
conceived.  Buchanan,  \\\\o  witnessed  the  walls  and  gates  of  the 
temple  of  Juggernaut  "  covered  with  indecent  emblems  in  massive 
and  durable  sculpture,"  and  hstened  to  the  obscene  stanzas  which 
the  priest  said  "  are  the  delight  of  the  god,"  beheld  the  "  lascivious 
2 


10 

gesture,"  and  "  Indecent  action,"  and  heard  from  the  multitude 
"  the  sensual  yell  of  delight,"  as  they  urged  the  car  along,  says, 
"  I  was  appalled  at  the  magnitude  and  horror  of  the  spectacle, 
and  felt  a  consciousness  of  doing  wrong  in  witnessing  it,  and  was 
about  to  withdraw  ;  but  a  scene  of  a  different  kind  was  now  to  be 
presented.  The  characteristics  of  Moloch's  worship  are  lust  and 
blood.  We  have  seen  the  former;  now  comes  the  blood."  "This, 
thought  I,  is  the  worship  of  the  Bramins  of  Hindostan,  in  its  sub- 
limesi  degree !  What  then  shall  we  think  of  their  private  manners 
and  their  moral  principles  :  for  it  is  equally  true  of  India,  as  of 
Europe,  if  you  would  know  the  state  of  the  people,  you  must  look 
at  the  state  of  the  temple." 

Why  should  we  allude  here  to  the  temple  of  Venus,  and  the 
similar  abominations  which  pertained  to  her  worship  ;  or  to  the 
chastity  of  nations,  a  part  of  whose  religion  consisted  in  the  most 
shameless  obscenities  ?    But  there  ivas  no  Sabbath  there. 

"  Thou  shalt  not  steal.^^  It  is  notorious,  however,  that  the  unevan- 
gelized  population  of  the  world,  with  little  exception,  is  addicted 
to  theft.  By  the  law^s  of  some  of  the  ancient  heathen  nations, 
stealing  was  encouraged,  if  not  expressly  enjoined.  And  among 
modern  heathens,  as  missionaries  and  other  travellers  have  con- 
stantly witnessed,  this  vice  almost  universally  prevails.  And  from 
what  class  of  society  in  Christian  nations,  does  the  anti-social  con- 
spiracy of  swindlers,  thieves^  and  robbers  usually  proceed  ?  Be- 
yond question,  they  are  those  whom  in  childhood  no  parental  in- 
struction and  example  taught  to  remember  the  Sabbath  day — the 
vagrants  of  our  cities  and  land,  to  whom  the  returning  Sabbath 
brought  leisure  and  opportunity  to  perfect  themselves,  by  practice, 
in  all  manner  of  wickedness. 

"  Thou  shalt  not  bear  false  witness  against  thy  neighbor. ^^  But 
in  Hindostan,  Sir  William  Jones,  who  adorned  alike  religion,  litera- 
ture, and  the  bench,  declares,  that  he  "  never  knew  a  Hindoo, 
whose  testimony  under  oath  could  be  fully  relied  on."  "  They 
will  swear  falsely,"  says  Mr.  Ward,  "  in  the  most  shocking  manner, 
so  that  a  judge  never  knows  when  he  may  safely  believe  a  Hindoo 
witness.  Some  of  the  courts  of  justice  are  infested  by  a  set  of 
men  who,  for  a  paltry  sum,  are  willing  to  make  oath  to  any  fact, 
however  false." 

The  facihty  with  which  forged  papers  and  false  testimony  can 
be  obtained  in  most  Catholic  countries,  is  w^ell  known  to  commer- 
cial men.  And  in  our  own  land,  as  we  recede  from  the  sanctuary 
and  the  Sabbath  to  those  classes  of  society,  whose  inclination  or 
employment  carry  them  beyond  its  illumination  and  blessed  attrac- 
tion, we  shall  find  the  sanctity  of  an  oath  to  decline,  and  life  and 
property,  as  protected  by  law,  to  be  more  and  more  insecure. 

"  Thou  shalt  not  covet.''  "  The  Hindoos,"  says  Mr.  Ward, 
*'  are  excessively  addicted  to  covetousness,  especially  in  the  great 


11 

towns,  where  ihey  have  been  coriTipted  by  commerce."  And 
where,  except  in  Christian  lands,  do  governmenis  exist,  which  are 
not  rapacious  ?  The  rapacity  of  the  Turkish  government  has  well 
nigh  depopulated  some  of  the  fairest  portions  of  the  eardi,  once 
the  most  populous,  where  no  crime  is  more  dangerous  to  life  than 
that  of  being  rich.  And  where  will  you  look  for  confirmation  of 
the  inspired  declaradon,  that  '  the  w^orld  lusteth  to  envy,'  and  for 
mobs  and  insurrections,  laying  rapacious  hands  on  the  property  of 
the  rich,  but  among  those  whom  the  Sabbath  has  not  visited,  and 
whose  only  restraint  is  the  coercion  of  law  ?  IMen  of  weahh,  who 
are  hasting  to  be  rich  by  Sabbath  day  earnings,  should  understand 
that  their  w^ealth  is  floating  on  a  popular  sea  whose  waves  the  laws 
cannot  chain,  when  the  Sabbath  has  ceased  to  legislate  in  the  name 
of  heaven — that  a  volcano  is  beneath  them,  whose  explosion  man 
cannot  prevent  or  withstand,  when  the  fear  of  the  Lord  has  ceased, 
which  is  the  beginning  of  wisdom.  If  our  men  of  w^ealth  desire 
the  scenes  of  rev'ohuionary  France  to  be  acted  over,  let  them  ob- 
literate die  Sabbath,  and  propagate  infidelity,  and  '  from  the  vasty 
deep,'  call  up  the  demons  of  blood — and  they  will  come. 

Volumes  of  facts,  under  each  of  these  particulars,  might  easily 
be  accumulated.  We  have  selected  a  few  only  as  specimens,  but 
enough  to  show,  that  the  moral  law,  without  the  Sabbath,  is  as  im- 
becile to  restrain  and  bless  mankind,  as  would  be  the  constitution 
and  statutes  of  our  government,  without  an  administration. 

From  the  moral  efficacy  of  the  Sabbath,  as  illustrated  by  facts,  we 
are  authorized  to  infer  the  universality  and  perpetuity  of  its  obliga- 
tions. It  is  one  of  the  ten  commands,  which  epitomize  the  whole 
duty  of  man  to  God,  and  to  his  neighbor; — the  pracucal  expression, 
in  worship  and  relative  dudes,  of  that  love  which  is  called  'the  fulfill- 
ing of  the  law.'  It  w-as  '  made'  or  instituted  for  man  'in  the  begin- 
ning.' It  might  just  as  well  be  pretended  that  the  world  was  not 
created,  as  that  the  Sabbath  was  not  instituted,  till  the  time  of  Moses. 
And  it  is  no  more  an  appendage  of  Judaism,  than  is  the  worship  of 
God,  or  the  love  of  our  neighbor.  It  is,  in  its  nature,  (the  particular 
day  only  in  the  seven  excepted)  a  moral  and  not  a  posidve  insti- 
tution. It  resuhs  from  the  nature  of  God  that  he  should  be  wor- 
shipped ;  and  from  the  nature  of  man,  that  he  should  one  day  in 
seven  enjoy  rest,  and  pay  to  God  his  adoration,  and  be  instructed 
in  his  duty.  There  is  in  the  constitution  of  the  human  mind  and 
body,  and  in  the  nature  of  God's  moral  government,  as  real,  as 
universal,  and  as  permanent  a  necessity  for  the  Sabbath,  as  there 
is  for  marriage,  obedience  to  parents,  or  for  truth  and  moral  hon- 
esty. Nay,  the  fourth  command  is  more  important  than  either  of 
die  nine,  as  it  is  that  alone  which  secures  to  the  government  of 
God  an  effectual  administration. 

The  change  of  the  day  from  the  seventh  to  the  first,  (of  which 
we  cannot  now  speak)  no  more  abolishes  the  obligadon  to  keep 


12 

holy  a  seventh  part  of  time,  than  it  changes  the  nature  of  God  or 
man.  To  God  worship  is  still  due,  and  man  needs  instruction  and 
rest  one  day  in  seven.  All  the  reasons,  therefore,  which  ever 
existed  for  the  institution  of  the  Sabbath,  exist  still,  and  will  forever 
exist,  while  the  character  of  God,  and  the  capacity  and  character 
of  man  remain. 

Were  it  admitted,  as  some  Christians  insist,  that  the  obliga- 
tion to  keep  the  Sabbath  is  not  derived  from  the  fourth  command, 
but  from  its  manifest  and  acknowledged  utility,  still,  it  must  be 
agreed,  that  the  Sabbath  is,  as  a  matter  of  duty,  to  be  set  apart 
from  secular  to  religious  purposes  ;  for  unquestioned  utility  indi- 
cates the  will  of  heaven,  and  creates  moral  obligation.  The  known 
use  of  the  Sabbath,  and  the  mischiefs  of  its  profanation,  afford 
evidence  of  the  divine  will,  which  every  man  would  be  bound  in 
conscience  to  regard,  though  no  express  institution  appeared  upon 
the  record.  God  has  not  defined,  by  express  precept,  the  kind  of 
garments  we  shall  wear  summer  and  winter  ;  but  it  would  be  suicide 
to  expose  the  body  in  the  habihments  of  summer,  to  the  storms  of 
winter.  But  it  is  no  more  credible  that  an  institution  so  powerful 
and  salutary  in  the  moral  world  as  the  Sabbath,  rose  up  by  chance, 
or  at  human  bidding,  than  that  the  sun  itself  sprung  into  existence, 
and  continues  its  course,  in  obedience  to  human  volidon. 

It  is  equally  manifest  in  what  manner  the  Sabbath  must  be 
sanctified,  to  answer,  in  society,  the  benevolent  end  of  its  insti- 
tution. It  must  be  so  kept,  that  the  physical  rest  which  universal 
nature  demands  may  be  enjoyed  ;  that  the  worship  which  is  due 
to  God  maybe  rendered  by  all,  and  the  instruction  which  all  need, 
to  make  them  good  citizens  in  time,  and  fellow  citizens  of  the 
saints  in  heaven,  may  be  obtained.  All  plans,  individual  or  na- 
tional, which  interfere  with  the  universal  rest  and  moral  instruc- 
tion of  the  Sabbath,  except  as  cases  of  real  necessity  shall  indicate, 
do,  in  proportion  to  the  extent  of  the  violation,  contravene  the 
wisdom  and  goodness  of  God  in  bestowing  the  Sabbath  upon 
man.  There  are  many,  who  eulogize  the  Sabbath,  and  would  de- 
precate its  universal  violation,  who  seem  to  think  it  may  well  be 
kept  by  proxy — the  few  for  the  many.  But  the  community  at 
large  may  as  well  eat  by  proxy,  the  few  for  the  many,  as  to  obtain 
rest,  or  intellectual  and  moral  culture  by  proxy.  The  Sabbath 
exerts  its  benign  power  on  those  only  who  keep  it ;  and  in  pro- 
pordon  to  the  extent  of  its  violation,  are  men  robbed  of  the  rest 
which  God  has  given  them,  and  deprived  of  all  the  good  influences 
of  his  moral  government. 

It  will  appear  also  from  the  preceding  facts  and  reasonings, 
that  violations  of  the  moral  law  are  proper  subjects  of  legislative 
prohibition  and  punishment,  whether  they  invade  directly,  or  only 
indirectly,  the  rights  of  man.  The  blasphemer  may  not  himself 
be  a  thief;  but  his  blasphemy,  so  far  as  it  produces  its  legitimate 


13 

effect,  breaks  down  the  moral  government  of  God,  emancipates 
men  from  his  fear,  and  lets  them  loose,  urged  on  by  furious  pas- 
sion, to  prey  upon  society.  The  drunkard  may  not  be  himself 
dishonest ;  but  by  the  neglect  of  relative  duty,  and  the  contagion 
of  his  bad  example,  he  sows  far  and  wide  around  him  the  seeds 
of  irreligion  and  dishonesty.  The  adulterer  may,  in  his  commer- 
cial intercourse,  be  a  man  of  his  word,  and  in  the  duelling  world  a 
man  of  honor  ;  but  he  scatters  in  the  community  firebrands,  arrows 
and  death,  and  sets  on  fire  the  course  of  nature,  as  if  it  were  set 
on  fire  of  hell.  The  Sabbath  breaker  may  not  be  in  all  respects  an 
immoral  man ;  but  by  his  example,  and  by  his  influence  when  he 
employs  others  to  violate  the  Sabbath,  he  prostrates,  as  far  as  his 
influence  extends,  the  moral  government  of  God,  and  lets  men 
loose  to  war  upon  their  own  souls,  and  upon  one  another,  and  upon 
the  State,  as  depravity,  unrestrained  by  the  fear  of  God,  and  stimi 
lated  by  temptation,  may  urge  them  on.  Is  it  proper  then  to  pun- 
ish the  incendiary ;  and  shall  he  escape  who  made  him  such,  and 
laid  the  train  to  which  he  only  applies  the  spark  ?  Shall  the  sword 
of  justice  sleep,  while  the  dagger  is  brandished,  and  the  poison 
is  preparing,  and  smite  only  when  the  work  of  desolation  is  done  ? 
Shall  the  enemy  be  met  only  when  he  has  planted  his  foot  on  the 
soil  of  freedom,  and  no  opposition  be  made  to  his  landing  ? 

All  Christian  nations  have  considered  it  lawful  to  protect  the 
Sabbath  from  secular  violation,  as  the  means  of  self-preservation 
and  civil  prosperity.  Most  or  all  of  the  American  colonies  did  this 
from  the  beginning  ;  w^e  believe  all  the  thirteen  States  enacted  laws 
prohibiting  the  appropriation  of  the  Sabbath  to  secular  concerns ; 
and  nearly  every  State  which  is  a  member  of  the  social  compact 
now,  has  done  the  same.  It  is  not  without  astonishment,  therefore, 
that  we  behold  the  principle  advanced,  that  government  has  no 
right  to  make  the  moral  law  the  rule  of  legislation,  because  it  would 
imply  a  legislative  exposition  of  its  precepts,  and  settle  theological 
disputes.  This  w^e  believe  is  a  new  maxim,  wholly  original,  never 
conceived  or  uttered  before  in  a  Christian  legislature ;  a  position 
which  can  be  sustained  only  upon  the  supposition  that  there  is  no 
God,  or  no  national  accountability  to  God.  Is  it  true,  that  the  gov- 
ernment of  a  Christian  people,  under  all  the  immense  responsibili- 
ties of  legislation,  must  move  on  blindfold  to  the  light  from  heaven? 
Why  then  do  Congress  prescribe  oaths,  from  the  chief  magistrate, 
to  the  lowest  office  in  the  custom  house,  or  postoflice  department? 
And  how  many  disputed  questions  do  they  thus  settle  by  legisla- 
tion,— deciding  against  the  atheist,  that  there  is  a  God  ;  against  the 
fatalist,  that  man  is  a  free  agent  and  accountable;  against  the  deist, 
that  the  soul  is  immortal ;  while  they  settle  the  much  contested 
question  of  future  punishment — 'so  help  me  God'  being  understood 
to  mean,  '  may  God  deal  with  me  in  the  world  to  come,  as  my  testi- 
mony shall  be  true  or  false.'  The  punishment  for  piracy  or  murder, 


14 

expounds  the  sixth  command,  and  decides  the  agitated  question, 
that  the  taking  of  life  for  national  security  is  lawful,  which  more 
persons  disbelieve  than  there  are  Jews  and  Sabbatarians  in  the 
land.  The  appointment  of  chaplains  in  Congress,  seems  to  be  a 
legislative  decision  against  the  Jew,  that  Jesus  is  the  Messiah,  and 
the  Christian  religion  true.  And  why  do  Congress  adjourn  over 
the  Sabbath,  and  why  are  all  the  courts,  and  beads  of  department, 
and  custom  houses,  and  navy  yards  closed  ?  Ought  not  all  these 
to  be  opened,  to  avoid  such  a  seeming  exposition  of  the  fourth 
command,  such  a  trampling  on  the  conscience  of  the  Jew,  and 
such  a  sanctioning  of  "  the  principle  of  all  the  religious  persecu- 
tions, with  which  almost  every  page  of  modern  history  is  stained  ?" 

What  if  the  national  government,  instead  of  practising  economy 
by  the  violation  of  the  fourth  command,  had  authorized  the  viola- 
tion of  the  seventh,  by  licencing,  as  they  do  in  Europe,  houses  of 
pollution  ;  and  national  shame  and  conscience  had  poured  in  these 
petitions,  that  the  nation  might  be  released  from  such  infamy  and 
crime  ?  The  honorable  Committee,  in  reply,  would  need  to  change 
scarce  a  letter  of  their  Report.  '  We  are  aware,'  they  might  say, 
'  that  a  variety  of  sentiment  exists  in  this  nation  on  the  subject  of 
the  seventh  command,  and  the  obligations  of  chastity.  The  peti- 
tioners seem  to  take  it  for  granted,  that  the  practice  complained  of  is 
a  violation  of  the  law  of  God.  But  a  large  and  respectable  class  of 
men  (and  women  also)  believe  the  Bible  to  be  a  cunningly  devised 
fable,  and  the  seventh  command,  in  particular,  to  be  an  invasion  of 
inherent  rights,  and  a  war  against  nature — the  result  of  that  arti- 
ficial and  arbitrary  state  of  society  which  kings  and  priests  have 
introduced,  and  which  it  is  the  prerogative  of  reason  and  philoso- 
phy to  oppose,  till  the  happy  time  shall  come,  when  coercive 
monopolies  shall  cease,  and  every  man  and  woman,  being  fully 
persuaded  in  their  own  minds,  will  act  according  to  their  persuasion. 

'  With  these  different  views  about  the  seventh  command,  the 
Committee  are  of  opinion,  that  Congress  cannot  interfere.  Should 
Congress  repeal  the  law,  it  would  imply  a  legislative  decision  that 
the  Bible  is  the  word  of  God — a  legislative  decision  of  a  theolo- 
gical dispute — an  encroachment  on  natural  hberty — an  attempt  to 
coerce  chastity  by  national  law ;  all  which  transcends,  obviously, 
the  powers  of  the  government.' 

From  the  views  here  taken  on  this  subject,  we  cannot  but  hope 
it  will  seem  plain  to  many,  whose  minds  have  been  unsettled  and 
perplexed  by  the  Report,  that  the  transportation  of  the  mail  and 
the  opening  of  the  post  offices  on  the  Sabbath  cannot  be  regarded 
as  a  matter  of  national  necessity.  To  become  such,  it  must  be 
as  urgent  as  the  necessity  which  authorizes  individuals  to  do  secu- 
lar work  on  the  Sabbath.  But  this,  in  the  case  of  individuals, 
must  be  only  occasional,  and  never  systemadc  and  habitual.  And 
it  must  be,  where  the  great  laws  of  self-preservation,  which  it  is 


15 

the  object  of  the  Sabbath  to  sustain,  would  be  subverted.  But  no 
such  necessity  to  transport  the  mail,  and  open  the  post  offices, 
presses  on  the  nation,  as  would  constitute  a  justifiable  necessity  in 
the  case  of  individuals, — like  that  of  preparing  food,  attending  the 
sick,  pursuing  voyages  on  the  deep,  or  self-defence  in  time  of  war. 
And  as  the  necessity  is  not  such  as  would  justify  individuals,  even 
in  the  occasional  violation  of  the  Sabbath  ;  much  less  can  it  justify 
the  government  in  extending  its  stated  and  habitual  violation  through 
the  land.  Necessity,  in  the  scriptural  sense,  is  not  even  pretended. 
All  which  is  claimed  is,  that  the  running  of  the  mail  is  a  great  conve- 
nience, and  a  great  saving  in  time  and  money.  But  may  individu- 
als violate  the  Sabbath  statedly  for  convenience,  time  and  money  ? 
How  then  can  Congress  do  it  ?  Can  the  people  invest  their  gov- 
ernment with  authority  to  do  that  which  it  is  unlawful  for  them- 
selves to  do  ? 

This  ple^  of  national  necessity  is  answered  also  by  the  considera- 
tion, that  the  post  office  in  London  is  closed  on  the  Sabbath,  and  no 
mail  is  permitted  to  leave  the  city  on  that  day  ; — by  the  fact  that, 
during  the  early  part  of  our  national  existence,  including  a  period 
of  unparalleled  commercial  activity  and  national  prosperity,  the 
post  offices  of  this  land  were  closed,  and  the  mails,  but  to  a 
very  hmited  extent,  did  not  run  on  the  Lord's  day ; — and 
from  the  fact  that  we  enjoy  now,  by  the  improvement  of 
roads,  and  the  facilities  of  steam,  a  more  rapid  communication 
of  intelhgence  in  five  days,  than  fifteen  years  ago  could  have 
been  accomplished  in  seven.  No  necessity,  therefore,  presses 
us  now,  which  did  not  press  the  nation  twenty  years  ago,  without 
the  apprehension  of  creating  a  necessity  for  violating  the  Sabbath  ; 
and  every  year,  the  same  causes  are  rendering  the  plea  more  and 
more  fallacious  and  inexcusable.  Besides,  not  half  the  nation  are 
benefited  now  by  the  Sabbath  mails.  Probably  three  quarters  of 
the  people  do  not  receive  their  intelligence  oftener  than  twice  and 
thrice  in  the  week.  How  are  these  defended  against  expresses, 
and  commercial  speculations  ?  Or  is  it  only  for  the  accommoda- 
tion of  the  great  cities,  that  the  nation  must  surrender,  to  such  a 
fearful  extent,  the  moral  energies  of  the  Sabbath?  But  that  even 
this  is  not  necessary,  is  apparent  from  the  facts,  that  many  merchants 
of  the  first  respectability  and  most  extensive  business,  will  not  re- 
ceive their  communications  on  the  Sabbath  ;  and  that  a  large  portion 
of  the  respectable  mercantile  community  in  our  cities,  have  peti- 
tioned Congress  to  close  the  post  offices,  and  discontinue  the 
running  of  the  mail, — while  few,  and  comparatively  feeble,  have 
been  the  notes  of  remonstrance. 

We  are  aware  it  has  been  said,  that  if  the  government  should 
cease  to  transport  the  mail,  private  expresses  would  be  hastened 
through  the  land,  and  that  a  greater  encroachment  would  be  made 
upon  the  Sabbath,  than  is  now  made ;  so  that  even  if  it  is  a  sin  to 


16 

keep  up  commercial  business  on  the  Sabbath,  it  is  much  cheaper, 
on  the  whole,  to  have  the  government  sin  for  the  people,  than  to 
have  the  people  sin  for  themselves.  But  by  the  same  authority 
we  have  been  told,  and  we  believe  it,  that  it  is  not  the  business  of 
the  national  government  to  sustain  by  positive  legislation,  either  the 
religion  or  the  morals  of  the  nation.  It  is  wholly  a  pohtical  insti- 
tution. If  other  men  will  sin  if  the  government  do  not  sin  for 
them,  that  is  not  the  fault  of  the  government,  and  does  not  ex- 
pose the  people  to  punishment  on  their  account ;  and  before  the 
government  undertake  to  economize  in  wickedness  for  the  peo- 
ple, we  think  the  constitution  ought  to  be  revised,  and  an  article 
inserted  giving  this  power.  Until  this  is  done,  all  w^e  ask  of  Con- 
gress is  not  to  impede  our  efforts  to  maintain  the  sanctity  of  the 
Sabbath ;  and  by  the  laws  of  the  states,  and  Sabbath  schools,  and 
such  other  efforts  as  the  honorable  gentleman  kindly  recommends 
to  us,  we  will  endeavor  to  "  persM«^e,"  not  "  coerce^''  our  country- 
men into  a  unanimous  opinion  that  it  is  best,  for  time  and  for  eter- 
nity, to  remember  the  Sabbath  day,  and  keep  it  holy. 

We  cannot  but  admire  the  admirable  dexterity  with  which  the 
honorable  gentleman  touches  and  demolishes,  as  with  magic 
wand,  all  his  own  formidable  objections  to  granting  the  petitions. 
'  It  cannot  be  done  !  Impossible  !  Jew  and  Gentile  would  justly 
revolt  at  the  odious  impartiality.  Should  there  be  only  half  a 
thousand  Jews,  we  must  violate  the  Sabbath  of  twelve  millions  of 
Christians,  to  evince  our  consistency  and  impartiality.' — How  ceas- 
ing to  violate  the  Christian  Sabbath  should  alleviate  the  conscience 
of  the  Jew,  whose  Sabbath  will  be  violated  at  any  rate,  we  cannot 
perceive;  but  so  it  must  be,  until  the  petitioners  are  disposed  of;  and 
then,  having  escaped  from  these  rocks  and  quicksands  to  a  smooth 
and  open  sea,  lo  !  all  at  once,  there  is  not  the  least  difficulty  in  stop- 
ping the  mail  on  the  first  day  of  the  week,  if  it  be  only  expedient. 
If  a  few  dollars  can  be  saved  to  the  nation  by  stopping  the  mail,  why 
then  it  can  be  done  ;  for  *  it  is  the  opinion  of  the  Committee  that 
the  subject  should  be  regarded  simply  as  a  question  of  expediency, 
irrespective  of  its  religious  bearings.  Jew  and  Christian  out  of 
the  question,  we  can  grant  your  petitions  without  the  least  difficulty, 
if  it  is  best.'  Be  it  so,  then.  The  petitioners  have  not  asked  that 
Congress  will  be  induced  to  stop  the  mail  on  the  Sabbath  for  every 
one  of  the  reasons  they  have  urged ;  nor  would  the  granting  of  the 
petitions  imply  this.  Does  the  decision  of  a  case  in  favor  of 
counsel  on  one  side  imply  the  legitimacy  of  all  his  arguments  ? 
If  the  honorable  gentleman  had  read  the  petitions  extensively, 
he  would  have  seen,  that  they  rest  their  argument  as  much  on 
the  inexpediency,  as  on  the  immorality,  of  encroaching  upon 
the  Sabbath,  by  the  transportation  of  the  mails.  Indeed,  if  the 
transportation  of  the  mail  is  not  a  work  of  necessity,  the  evi- 
dence of  its  inexpediency  is  irresistible.     Those  best   acquainted 


17 

with  muscular  strength,  admit  that,  whatever  seeming  gain  may- 
be the  result  of  unintermitted  toil,  it  is  more  than  balanced  by 
the  waning  powers,  and  shortened  date  of  animal  activity  ;  and 
the  general  law  of  animal  mechanism  will,  with  infallible  certainty, 
cut  short  the  date  and  the  results  of  human  exertion.  So  far  then 
as  national  prosperity  depends  on  muscular  and  mental  vigor,  six 
days  will  produce  a  greater  income  than  seven  ;  with  cheering  rest, 
and  higher  health,  and  better  spirits,  and  social  enjoyment,  and  reli- 
gious privileges,  and  peace  of  conscience,  and  hopes  of  heaven. 
But  were  the  earnings  of  the  Sabbath  clear  gain^  it  is  too  soon  to 
exult,  until  the  sickness  and  premature  mortality  occasioned  by  in- 
cessant toil  are  estimated — the  quarrels  and  law  suits,  the  intemper- 
ance, and  improvidence,  and  idleness,  the  neglect  of  moral  cul- 
ture in  the  family,  and  the  peculation  and  wasteful  prodigality 
which  attend  the  latter  end  of  national  dissoluteness.  How  certainly 
will  all  these  sacrilegious  earnings  be  swallowed  up,  and  with  them 
double  their  amount  of  honest  gains,  in  the  vortex  of  dissipation, 
which  the  violation  of  the  Sabbath  will  not  fail  to  create  ;  for  noth- 
ing is  so  improvident  and  wasteful  as  vice.  Besides,  if  the  transpor- 
tation of  the  mail  is  not  lawful,  as  a  work  of  necessity,  it  is  criminal, 
and  a  great  national  sin  ;  and  whoever  contended  with  his  Maker 
and  prospered  ?  Does  he  not  hold  at  his  disposal  all  the  sources  of 
national  prosperity,  and  all  the  engines  of  national  chastisement  ? 
At  what  instant  he  speaks,  pestilence  and  war,  blast  and  mildew, 
may  invade  us  ;  the  wisdom  of  the  wise  may  perish ;  infatuation 
fall  on  our  counsels  ;  and  the  flames  of  a  furious  civil  war  burst 
out  in  the  nation.  Until  we  are  independent  of  God,  it  is  madness 
to  trample  on  his  institutions. 

But  we  are  told  that  no  great  encroachment  is  made  on  the 
Sabbath,  and  no  great  evil  inflicted,  by  the  transportation  of  the 
mail.  This  is  the  opinion  of  the  honorable  Committee,  unsup- 
ported by  any  competent  testimony,  and  in  opposition  to  the  ex- 
press testimony  of  the  thousands  of  all  classes  in  society,  of  all 
rehgious  denominations,  and  from  all  parts  of  the  land,  who  express 
their  deep  sense  of  the  great  evil  which  is  done  to  the  cause  of 
religion  and  morality,  by  the  transportation  of  the  mail,  and  the 
opening  of  the  post  ofiices.  Nor  are  facts  in  the  case  wanting 
which  justify  their  behef.  There  are  twenty-six  thousand  men 
employed  on  the  Sabbath,  in  superintending  the  transportation  and 
opening  of  the  mail ;  many  of  whom  are  subjected  to  the  entire 
loss,  and  many  more  to  the  partial  loss,  of  the  privileges  of  pubhc 
worship.  Those  who  travel  in  the  mail  stages,  and  those  detained 
from  worship  for  their  accommodation,  constitute  an  equal  number, 
who  are  deprived  of  the  rest  and  benign  influences  of  the  Sabbath. 
And  probably  three  times  the  same  number  of  children  and  ser- 
vants are  in  this  way  denied  the  instruction  and  government  which 
their  parents  and  masters  are  bound  to  give  them  on  the  Sabbath, 
3 


18 

and  abandoned  to  their  own  way,  under  the  powerful  influence  of 
a  bad  example.  And  is  ail  this  a  trifle  ?  But  to  this  must  be 
added  the  innumerable  multitude  of  minds,  tossed  by  restless  anxie- 
ties, and  unblessed  by  the  influence  of  religious  instruction,  in  con- 
sequence of  the  tide  of  worldly  care  and  business  which  the  mail 
of  every  Sabbath  throws  upon  them.  And  to  conscience  we  appeal, 
whether  to  these  entire  classes  the  mail  does  not  counteract  and 
destroy  nearly  the  whole  moral  influence  of  the  Sabbath  day. 
When  political  intelligence  or  letters  on  business  are  expected  or 
received,  how  many  thousands  absent  themselves  from  the  house  of 
God  wholly  ;  or  with  what  vacant,  vexed,  and  wandering  minds,  do 
they  attend  ?  Does  not  the  seed  fall  among  thorns,  and  the  cares 
of  this  world,  and  the  deceitfulness  of  riches,  and  the  lust  of  other 
things,  spring  up  and  choke  the  word  ?  Can  the  Sabbath  exert 
its  benign  influence  on  those,  for  time  or  for  eternity,  through 
whose  minds  and  hearts  the  Sabbath  mail  pours  along,  without  in- 
termission, the  turbid  stream  of  worldly  care,  and  on  whom  it 
imposes,  in  some  form,  and  to  a  great  extent,  the  tax  of  secular 
labor  ?  How  can  the  Sabbath  be  kept,  when  the  entire  secular 
business  of  the  nation  is  pressed  every  Sabbath  upon  the  attention 
of  those  who  are  concerned  in  it  ?  Most  of  these  persons,  too, 
are  parents  and  masters,  whose  children  and  servants  are  again 
unblessed  with  that  moral  supervision  whicli  God  has  provided  for 
them,  and  left  to  grow  up  in  darkness,  or  to  borrow  light  from 
other  altars  than  their  own.  Is  this  wide  spread  diversion  of  mind 
and  heart,  and  this  neglect  of  religious  and  domestic  duties,  a  small 
evil  ?  Millions  are  injured  by  it,  and  gradually,  but  certainly,  the 
moral  power  of  the  Sabbath  will  be  destroyed  by  it. 

But  as  yet  we  have  not  named  the  influence  of  Sabbath  mails  and 
post  offices,  which  is  most  comprehensively  disastrous.  We  mean 
the  high  countenance  and  sanction,  which  the  example  of  the  gov- 
ernment affords,  to  an  entire  national  sequestration  of  the  Sabbath. 
Until  the  mails  stretched  out  their  long  lines  of  travel  through  the 
nation,  public  sentiment  and  law,  in  many  parts  of  the  land,  kept 
back  the  immoralities  of  impatient  worldliness.  But  this  single 
practice  of  running  the  mail,  and  opening  the  post  offices  on  the 
Sabbath,  has  been  like  the  letting  out  of  waters, — first  the  drop — 
next  the  stream — and  then  the  yawning  breach — till  all  mounds  and 
landmarks  have  nearly  disappeared  before  the  universal  inundation. 
The  laws  of  the  States  relative  to  the  Sabbath  have  become  a  dead 
letter,  and  public  sentiment,  paralyzed  by  familiarity,  and  faint- 
hearted, has  not  been  heard  amid  the  foam  and  roar  of  the  sur- 
rounding flood  ;  until  the  precipice  at  length  to  which  we  are  hast- 
ing appears,  and  a  panic  of  fear  has  flashed  through  the  land, 
while  all  instinctively  lay  hold  on  the  Sabbath  as  the  anchor  of  their 
hopes.  And  yet  the  Committee  tell  them,  while  the  cataract  roars, 
and  cord  after  cord  of  the  cable  is  cut,  that  no  harm  is  done — that 


19 

it  is  good  economy,  and  that  Congress,  for  conscience  sake,  and 
the  love  of  liberty  and  convenience,  cannot  stop ! 

In  our  more  particular  animadversions  on  the  Report,  we  regret 
that  truth  and  equity  should  require  us  to  say,  that  the  petitioners 
are  misapprehended,  and,  though  we  trust  unintentionally,  yet  really 
and  grossly  misrepresented.  Both  the  language  and  the  argument 
of  the  Report  imply,  that  the  petitioners  have  requested  Congress 
to  legislate  over  the  citizens  of  the  nation,  to  prohibit  the  violation 
and  enforce  the  observance  of  the  Sabbath,  by  the  penalties  of 
law.  And  the  reply  is,  '  it  would  interfere  with  the  rights  of  the 
Jew ;  oblige  Congress  to  turn  expositors  of  the  ten  command- 
ments, and  settle  by  legislation  a  theological  controversy  ;  would 
be  Hke  the  Jewish  theocracy,  to  enforce  rehgious  observances  ;  in- 
troduce religious  coercion  in  our  civil  institutions ;  innovate  upon 
the  religious  rights  of  the  citizens ;  incorporate  the  observance  of 
a  holy  day  in  our  land  ;  and  we  might  as  well  provide  edifices  and 
support  the  ministry ; — that  there  is  no  way  to  avoid  these  evils, 
but  to  regard  Congress  as  a  civil  institution,  wholly  destitute  of  re- 
ligious authority  ;  and  that  our  constitution  regards  no  other  power 
than  that  of  persuasion  for  enforcing  religious  observances.' 

By  all  this  variety  of  phraseology  and  argument,  are  the  peti- 
tioners held  up  to  odium  before  the  nation,  as  having  petitioned 
Congress  to  compel  the  people  of  the  United  States,  by  law,  to 
observe  the  first  day  of  the  week.  Those  who  approve  of  the 
Report,  understand  it  thus,  and  seek  to  turn  upon  the  petitioners 
the  odium  of  such  a  request.  But  have  the  petitioners  made  any 
such  request?  Never.  We  challenge  the  honorable  gentleman 
who  presented  the  Report  to  produce  a  single  petition  from  the 
multitude,  which  asks  that  Congress  will  by" law  compel  the  people 
of  the  United  States  to  observe  the  first  day  of  the  week  as  the 
Sabbath,  or  to  observe  any  day.  We  admit,  and  the  petitioners 
well  knew,  that  Congress  have  no  power  to  do  this,  not  because  it 
would  imply  an  exposition  of  the  moral  law,  or  the  setdement  of  a 
religious  controversy  ;  but  the  Sabbath,  with  many  other  subjects 
of  legislation,  is  reserved  to  the  States,  as  independent  republics  ; 
while  to  Congress  is  confided  such  matters  of  general  policy,  do- 
mestic and  foreign,  as  result  from  the  relations  of  the  States  to  one 
another  and  to  the  government,  and  from  our  national  character 
and  relations.  Congress  have  no  more  authority  to  prohibit  and 
punish  theft  and  adultery,  than  Sabbath  breaking  ;  no  more  au- 
thority to  protect  the  life,  reputation  and  property  of  the  citizens 
of  the  United  States,  except  it  be  on  the  high  seas,  than  to  protect 
the  Sabbath  ;  no  more  right  to  build  court  houses  and  jails,  and 
appoint  courts  and  sheriffs  for  the  different  counties,  than  to  build 
temples  and  support  ministers.  On  all  these  subjects,  it  is  the  pro- 
vince of  the  States  to  legislate  ;  and  on  all  these  subjects  the  States 
have  legislated  from  their  colonial  infancy  to  this  day,  without 
dreaming  of  any  of  the  horrible  consequences  portrayed  in  the 


20 

Report,  and  without  encroachment  on  the  conscience  either  of 
Sabbatarian  or  Jew,  who  have  been  permitted  to  be  fully  persuad- 
ed in  their  own  minds,  and  rest  on  which  day  of  the  seven  they 
pleased. 

Will  it  then  be  demanded,  what  have  the  petitioners  prayed  for  ? 
Self-respect  and  public  justice  required  the  Committee  to  have 
ascertained  this,  before  with  such  needless  haste  and  injurious  mis- 
representation they  made  their  Report.  The  petitioners  ask  that 
Congress  will  cause  its  own  agents  of  the  post  office  department, 
over  whom  it  possesses  the  entire  power  of  legislation,  to  pay  the 
same  respect  to  the  Sabbath,  which  Congress  itself,  by  its  adjourn- 
ment, pays  to  it,  and  which  the  national  courts,  and  other  heads  of 
departments,  and  the  custom  houses  of  the  nation,  pay  to  it ;  and 
they  request  Congress  to  do  this  by  legislation,  because  they  have 
by  legislation  required  and  sanctioned  the  anomaly  of  disregard  to 
the  Sabbath  in  the  post  office  department. 

The  Committee  are  mistaken  in  saying  that  Congress  have 
never  legislated  on  this  subject.  From  an  early  date,  the  mail  has 
run  on  the  Sabbath  on  some  routes  ;  and  repeatedly  have  Congress, 
when  petitioned  on  the  subject,  refused  to  give  directions  to  the 
Post  Master  General  to  the  contrary.  And  in  1825,  a  law  was 
enacted,  requiring  every  post  master  in  the  land  to  deliver  letters 
and  packages  on  every  day  of  the  week,  at  all  seasonable  hours. 
The  refusal  to  direct  the  Post  Master  General  to  discontinue  the 
transportation  of  mails  on  the  Sabbath,  and  this  law  compelling  all 
the  post  offices  of  the  nation  to  be  open  on  the  Sabbath,  is  a  legis- 
lative confirmation  of  the  practice.  So  the  Post  Master  General 
justly  considers  the  subject.  "  The  result  of  these  applications," 
he  says,  "  has  given  a  sanction  to  the  policy  of  the  department, 
which  I  have  considered  as  controlling  any  discretion  the  Post 
Master  General  might  be  inclined  to  exercise  on  the  subject.  He 
cannot  act  on  the  moral  principle,  unless  he  extend  it  to  every 
mail  in  the  nation.  This  would  involve  a  responsibility  which  no 
individual  can  exercise  with  impunity,  and  would  be  in  opposition 
to  the  implied  sanction  of  the  national  legislature." 

The  petitioners  ask  that  Congress  will  cease  to  enforce,  by  law, 
what  they  (the  petitioners)  deem  a  violation  of  the  Sabbath  ;  that 
they  will  give  to  the  Post  Master  General  a  legislative  sanction  for 
the  discontinuance  of  the  Sabbath  mails,  as  unequivocal  as  that 
by  which  they  have  foreclosed  his  discretion,  and  made  it  his  duty 
to  continue  them.  They  ask  Congress,  by  its  public  agents,  to 
respect  the  Sabbath  in  the  Post  Office  department,  as  it  is  respect- 
ed in  all  other  departments  of  the  government.  And  they  are 
gravely  told  that  Congress  cannot  expound  the  ten  commands, 
cannot  setde  theological  disputes,  cannot  invade  the  conscience  of 
the  Jew,  cannot  introduce  religious  observances  into  our  institutions, 
cannot  coerce  the  observance  of  the  Sabbath,  cannot  preclude  the 
discretion  of  the  people  to  think  for  themselves,  cannot  sanction  a 


21 

principle  of  persecution  which  has  stained  almost  every  page  of 
history  ;  and  they  might  have  added  with  just  as  much  relevancy, 
and  with  as  litde  insult  to  the  petidoners,  cannot  sustain  a  crusade 
to  rescue  the  holy  sepulchre  from  infidels,  or  make  a  pilgrimage 
to  Mecca  in  honor  of  Mahomet,  or  send  an  embassy  to  explore 
the  concavity  of  the  North  Pole. 

Nor  is  misrepresentation  the  full  measure  of  retribution  with 
which  the  petitioners  are  visited.  It  is  insinuated  that  they  are  a 
combination  to  change  the  government  from  a  civil  to  a  religious 
insdtution.  To  make  such  an  attempt  would  be  treason,  and  the 
punishment  of  treason  is  death.  But  what  have  the  petitioners 
done  ?  Have  diey  met  in  midnight  conclave,  or  in  tumultuous  as- 
semblies, or  assailed  the  government  widi  the  language  of  autho- 
rity or  menace  ?  What  unlawful  word  have  they  spoken  ?  What 
unlawful  act  have  they  done  ?  Have  not  religious  persons  the  same 
right  as  others  to  petition  Congress  ?  And  when  diey  have  done 
so,  are  they  to  be  denounced  jjefore  the  nation  as  a  treasonable 
combination  to  change  the  government — as  taking  the  first  step, 
and  entering  the  opening  wedge  of  revolution  ?  And  yet  the  conspira- 
tors are  many  of  them  such  men  that,  if  they  are  false,  where  shall 
we  look  for  integrity  ;  or  if  they  are  deceived,  for  talent  and  wis- 
dom ?  They  approach  the  government,  not  for  personal  emolument, 
but  as  patriots  and  Christians,  to  express  their  high  sense  of  the  moral 
energy  and  necessity  of  the  Sabbath  for  the  perpetuity  of  our  re- 
publican institutions,  and  respectfully  to  request  that  the  govern- 
ment will  not,  by  legislation,  impair  those  energies.  And  by  im- 
plication they  are  charged  with  crimes  which,  were  they  real, 
would  subject  them  to  the  halter  ! 

There  has  been  no  combination,  and  is  none,  but  what  is  i)ro- 
duced  by  the  concurrent  feeling  of  grief  and  alarm  among  wise 
and  good  men,  at  beholding  die  influence  of  die  Sabbath  impaired, 
by  a  conspicuous  and  all  pervading  governmental  sanction.  And 
no  means  have  been  resorted  to,  but  such  as  the  Constitudon 
guarantees,  the  nature  of  the  case  demands,  and  all  men  adopt  on 
other  subjects  to  bring  out  an  expression  of  public  sentiment. 

The  Report  moreover  denies  to  Christians  the  exercise  of  their 
civil  rights.  The  right  of  peddoning  is  guaranteed  to  all  citizens 
alike.  But  the  object  of  petidoning  is,  by  a  statement  of  lacts  and 
arguments,  and  the  exhibidon  of  public  sentiment,  to  influence  the 
government ;  and  this  the  Report  implies  all  persons  may  do,  but 
religious  persons.  Should  they,  alarmed  by  any  supposed  en- 
croachment upon  the  religious  or  moral  interests  of  the  community, 
venture  to  pedtion,  they  must  be  rejected, — for  the  prevention  of 
a  religious  despodsm,  and  the  preservation  of  religious 
LIBERTY  !  Alas  !  where  is  religious  liberty  now,  if  Christians  may 
not  pedtion  Congress  ! 

We  admit  that  Chrisdans,  as  such,  ought  not  to  attempt  to  in- 


fluence  the  administration  in  things  merely  secular,  beyond  the 
unobtrusive  influence  of  their  silent  suffrage  ;  and  ought  not  to 
become  political  partisans,  heated  and  agitated  by  all  the  little  and 
great  disputes  which  must  ever  attend  popular  governments ;  and 
ought  never  to  attempt,  or  be  permitted,  to  make  the  government 
a  religious  instead  of  a  civil  institution.  But  it  is  not  a  civil,  but  a 
moral  effect  for  which  the  petitioners  ask,  and  one  in  their  view 
indispensable  to  the  perpetuity  of  our  republican  institutions.  Nor 
do  they  request  Congress  to  do  anything  by  positive  legislation  to 
support  or  even  to  protect  the  Sabbath.  To  the  laws  of  the  States, 
and  to  moral  influence  and  public  sentiment  they  look  for  this.  It  is 
their  desire  to  '  recommend  religion  by  deeds  of  benevolence,  by 
Christian  meekness,  by  lives  of  temperance  and  holiness,  by  com- 
bining their  efforts  to  instruct  the  ignorant,  to  relieve  the  widow  and 
the  orphan,  and  to  promulgate  to  the  world  the  Gospel  of  their  Sa- 
viour;' and  they  only  request  that  Congress  will  not  obstruct  them  in 
their  work,  by  impairing  the  moral  energy  of  the  Sabbath,  on  which, 
under  God,  all  their  success  depends  ; — and  they  are  told  about 
religious  combinations  to  effect  a  political  object,  and  the  danger 
of  a  religious  despotism  ! 

Is  the  maxim  settled,  then,  that  the  government  can  do  nothing 
injurious  to  the  interests  of  republicanism  and  virtue,  or  that  if  they 
do,  religious  persons  must  exert  no  influence  to  prevent  the  evil  ? 
Should  infidelity  begin  to  turn  the  influence  of  the  government 
against  religion,  might  not  the  injured  petition?  Should  Congress 
war  upon  national  morality  by  building  distilleries  all  over  the  land, 
might  not  the  friends  of  Rehgion,  beholding  their  demoralizing  in- 
fluence, petition  Congress  to  discontinue  them  ?  Would  this  be  an 
unlawful  attempt  to  influence  government  by  a  religious  combina- 
tion ?  To  whom  does  it  more  properly  appertain  than  to  the  reli- 
gious community,  to  watch  over  the  interests  of  morality,  and  to 
send  into  the  halls  of  legislation  the  voice  of  respectful,  affection- 
ate, but  earnest  expostulation  ? 

The  Report  perverts  and  misapplies  historical  facts,  in  respect 
to  religious  usurpations  upon  the  institutions  of  civil  government. 
The  Report  reasons  as  if  the  facts  were,  that  religious  people  have 
been  accustomed  to  seek  and  to  gain  an  insidious  ascendency  over 
governments  ;  whereas  the  facts  are,  that  governments,  to  augment 
and  perpetuate  their  power,  have  usurped  the  rights  of  the  people. 
Priests  have  indeed  been  the  instruments,  but  they  have  been  hire- 
lings, appointed  and  supported  by  the  government,  and  not  by  the 
people.  There  is  no  instance  in  the  annals  of  the  world,  in  which 
ministers,  chosen  and  supported  by  their  people,  or  churches,  in 
the  full  and  intelligent  enjoyment  of  religious  liberty,  ever  attempted 
to  usurp  an  ecclesiastical  dominion,  and  introduce  a  religious  des- 
potism. The  facts  assumed  to  excite  so  much  odium,  and  bring 
so  much  jealousy  upon  the  religious  community  of  this  nation,  are 


23 

facts  that  never  happened.  The  truth  is,  that  Christianity,  in  its 
doctrines  and  institutions,  is  theoretically,  experimentally,  and  prac- 
tically, republican  in  its  tendency.  Despotic  governments  know 
this,  and  have  therefore  never  permitted  Christianity  to  go  out 
among  their  people  in  all  her  simplicity,  loveliness,  and  power. 
They  have  corrupted  her  doctrines,  bribed  her  priesthood,  and 
encumbered  her  movements  by  state  garments  which  they  have 
compelled  her  to  wear  ;  while  the  history  of  the  church  presents 
a  continued  effort  of  good  men  to  throw  off  these  encumbrances, 
and  of  government  to  keep  religion  in  chains.  And  if  we  may 
trust  infidel  or  Christian  historians,  a  great  proportion  of  the  civil 
and  religious  liberty  of  the  world  has  resulted  from  the  efforts  of 
the  pious  to  obtain  religious  liberty.  None  were  more  determined 
advocates  of  religious  liberty,  than  the  Fathers  of  this  land,  who 
broke  from  the  religious  establishments  of  Europe,  and  by  whom, 
in  their  colonial  state,  all  the  elements  of  our  civil  and  religious 
institutions  were  formed.  It  was  their  spirit  which  burst  out  in  the 
Revolution,  achieved  our  independence,  and  breathed  itself  into 
our  State  and  national  governments.  None,  in  that  tremendous 
conflict  of  an  infant  republic  with  a  giant  nation,  were  more  influ- 
ential in  rousing  the  zeal,  and  sustaining  the  courage  of  the  peo- 
ple, or  made  greater  sacrifices,  than  the  ministers  and  their  pious 
hearers.  Nor  to  the  present  hour  has  the  flame  abated.  The 
ministers  and  churches  of  this  nation  do  not  desire,  but  would 
most  solemnly  deprecate,  a  union  of  church  and  State.  Religion 
does  not  obliterate  intellect,  nor  blot  out  memory,  nor  subvert 
the  judgement,  nor  inspire  ambitious  and  sinister  designs.  There 
is  reason,  and  philosophy,  and  talent,  and  learning,  and  patriotism, 
and  political  wisdom,  and  integrity,  among  the  religious  portion  of 
the  community.  Nor  have  they  done  anything  to  forfeit  the  con- 
fidence, or  to  justify  an  attempt  to  fasten  upon  them  the  suspicion, 
of  their  fellow  citizens.  They  know,  as  well  as  any  can  teach 
them,  that  the  alliance  of  church  and  State,  corrupts  religion,  and 
tends  to  despotism,  and  have  no  more  desire  than  others  to  be- 
queath degradation  and  bondage  to  their  posterity.  They  feel  that 
it  is  the  glory  of  our  nation,  that  it  is  not  cursed,  as  other  nations 
have  been,  with  the  union  of  church  and  State,  and  the  perplexed 
legislation  about  forms  of  worship,  and  the  establishment  of  creeds; 
and  so  far  are  they  from  desiring  a  national  religion  in  any  one 
denomination,  or  by  the  amalgamation  of  all,  that  no  class  of  the 
community  would  regard  such  an  attempt  with  more  abhorrence, 
or  meet  it  with  a  more  determined  resistance. 

Why,  then,  are  the  sins  of  Popery  visited  upon  Protestants,  and 
the  sins  of  despotic  governments  and  national  religions  visited 
on  the  Christians  of  a  republic  who  abhor  fhem,  and  who  were 
the  providential  instruments  by  which  God  prepared  deliverance, 
and  established  at  length  the  fair  fabric  of  our  civil  and  religious 


24 

institutions — at  once  the  admiration  and  the  hope  of  the  world  ? 
And  why  do  the  honorable  Committee  forget  that  the  last  horrible 
despotism  which  arose  on  the  ruins  of  civil  and  religious  liberty, 
was  reared  by  atheists,  who  obliterated  the  Sabbath,  and  denied 
accountability,  and  with  the  sweet  words  of  liberty  and  equality 
on  their  tongues,  waded  in  blood  ? 

The  Report,  were  it  sanctioned  by  the  government,  would  be 
an  act  of  real  and  severe  persecution.     No  device  of  persecuting 
governments  has  been  more  common  to  inflame  popular  resent- 
ment, prevent  sympathy,  and  justify  cruelty,  than  to  multiply  upon 
good  men   false  accusations  and  odious  epithets,  for  the  conscien- 
tious performance  of  their  duty.    Jeremiah,  for  his  faithful  reproofs 
was  charged  with  treason  and  cast  into  prison  ;  and  Jesus  was 
charged  with  aspiring  to  the  throne  of  Caesar.     Nero  set  Rome 
on  fire,  and  then  threw  upon  Christians  the  odium  of  the  execra- 
ble deed  ;  dressing  them  up  in  the  skins  of  wild  beasts,  and  letting 
out  dogs  to  bark  at  and  devour  them.     In  the  pagan  and  papal 
persecutions,  the  most  horrible  designs  and  odious  crimes  were 
charged  upon  Christians.     Vice  and  irreligion  have  always  chosen 
to  wrap  themselves  in  the  habiliments  of  virtue,  and  to  throw  their 
own  unseemly  garments  on  the  victims  of  their  hate.     In  this  na- 
tion, the  cry  of  'church  and  State'  has,  by  certain  writers,  been 
rung  through  all  the  changes  of  the  octave.     But  the  names  and 
lives  of  the  authors  being  known,  have  rendered  their  efforts  harm- 
less.    But  let  these  dark  and   unfounded  suspicions,  arising  from 
the  lakes  and  fens  of  infidelity,  be  embodied  and  propagated  by 
the  government,  and  a  new  era  opens  upon  us.     This  would  be 
indeed  the  first  step,  and  we  trust  the  last  too,  of  a  most  injurious 
governmental  persecution  ; — "  the  entering  wedge  of  a  scheme  to 
make  this  government"  a  religious  despotism,  "  instead  of  a  social 
and  political  institution."     For  of  what  avail  would  be   a  legal 
equality  on  paper,  and  the  sweet  sounds  of  liberty  playing  about 
our  ears,  if  ambitious  and  irreligious  and  worldly  men,  may  set  at 
naught  the   Sabbath,  which   all  men    admit  to   be  indispensable 
to  the  perpetuity  of  republican  institutions ;  and  religious  men,  if 
they  express  their  fears,  and  pour  out  their  sorrows,  supplications 
and  arguments  in  the  ears  of  the  government,  must  be  repelled 
with  the  charge  of  treasonable  combination.    It  was  said  of  Nabal, 
that  '  he  was  such  a  son  of  Belial,  that  a  man  might  not  speak  unto 
him  ;'  and  really,  it  would  seem  as  if  some  gentlemen  imagined 
that  their  feet  were  already  upon  the  necks  of  the  pious,  and  gov- 
ernmental influence  their  own  by  prescription,  and  that  all  attempts 
to  persuade  a  Christian  government  not  to  do  wrong,  were  an  un- 
hallowed interference  with  the  rights  of  a  wicked  man's  conscience. 
If  atheists  had  petitioned  for  the  preservation  of  the  Sabbath,  on 
account  of  its  good  republican  tendencies,  they  might  have  been 


25 

treated  with  decorum  ;  but  for  the  religious  community  to  petition, 
that  alters  the  case. 

Again  we  ask,  of  what  avail  are  liberty  and  equality  on  paper, 
and  in  name,  provided  such  a  perversion  of  public  sentiment  should 
be  sanctioned  by  the  government  itself,  as  makes  the  exercise  of 
tliose  rights  by  Christians  a  crime,  which  are  so  liberally  enjoyed 
by  all  other  classes  of  the  community  ?  This  would  be  a  despo- 
tism more  injurious  than  unequal  rights  by  constitution  :  for  these, 
modified  by  a  generous  public  sentiment,  might  become  a  dead 
letter ;  but  a  perverted  public  sentiment,  which  gives  to  one  class 
of  citizens  rights,  the  exercise  of  which  is  treasonable  combina- 
tion in  another,  is  a  despotism  which  never  sleeps,  and  is  never 
obsolete, — a  despotism  whose  iron  rod  would  be  felt,  not  around  the 
throne  merely,  but  wherever  there  is  an  atheist,  or  a  scoffer,  or  a 
profligate,  to  cry  '  priestcraft,'  and  an  irreligious  multitude  to  echo 
the  cry,  and  browbeat  the  pious.  Let  the  people  of  this  nation 
look  to  this,  and  remember,  that  religious  hberty  may  be  destroyed, 
under  the  specious  pretext  of  defending  it. 

The  Report  concludes  by  saying,  that  "  the  petitioners  do  not 
complain  of  any  infringement  on  their  own  rights."  But  they  do  : 
it  is  their  whole  and  only  complaint,  that  their  rights  are  invaded. 
They  complain  that  the  government  should  make  them  partakers 
in  its  sins,  and  in  the  judgements  which,  for  national  sins,  God  is 
accustomed  to  visit  both  upon  the  government  and  the  people. 
They  complain  that  their  efforts  to  train  up  their  children  and  the 
rising  generation,  should  be  impeded,  counteracted,  and  often  de- 
feated, by  the  floods  of  irreligion  and  immorality,  which  are  let  out 
upon  them  by  those  increasing  violations  of  the  Sabbath,  to  which 
the  authority  and  the  example  of  the  government  is  accessary. 
They  complain  that  their  own  life,  and  character,  and  property, 
should  be  rendered  more  and  more  insecure  by  such  a  fearful 
perversion  of  that  day,  which  alone  gives  energy  to  the  moral 
government  of  God,  forms  a  correct  public  sentiment,  and  gives 
efficacy  to  those  civil  laws  which  protect  their  rights.  They  com- 
plain that  conscientious  men  should  be  obliged  to  violate  their  con- 
sciences, or  be  excluded  from  employment  in  one  department  of 
the  government,  thus  throwing  the  entire  business  of  that  depart- 
ment, into  the  hands  of  men  of  a  lax  conscience.  They  hold  that 
our  republican  institutions  are  their  birthright,  and  that  neither  the 
citizens,  nor  the  government,  may  take  it  from  them,  by  impair- 
ing the  influence  of  the  Sabbath,  on  which  its  perpetuity  depends. 
They  are  employed,  as  they  have  been  exhorted  to  be,  in  under- 
girding  the  ship  by  moral  bonds,  not  at  all  aspiring  to  guide  the 
helm  ;  and  they  complain  that  while  they  are  doing  this,  the  high 
officers  on  board  should  give  orders  to  pull  out  the  caulking,  and 
bore  holes  in  the  bottom.  They  have  no  desire  to  go  to  the  bot- 
tom, and  the  government  have  no  right  to  sink  them. 
4 


26 

Since  most  of  the  preceding  was  in  type,  we  have  been  cheered 
by  the  Report  of  the  honorable  Mr.  McKean,  chairman  of  the 
Committee  on  post  offices  and  post  roads,  between  which  and  our 
own  sentiments,  we  are  gratified  to  perceive  so  many  points  of 
coincidence.  It  is  a  lucid,  candid,  able  document.  It  treats  the 
petitioners  with  the  decorum  which  every  republican  government 
owes  to  its  citizens,  who  approach  it  respectfully  to  petition,  and 
vindicates  them  from  the  unfounded  aspersions  so  illiberally  cast 
upon  them  by  the  Committee  of  the  Senate.  It  commences  by 
saying, 

"  The  memorials  on  this  subject,  on  account  of  the  numerous  sources  from 
which  they  have  been  received,  the  number  and  respectability  of  the  signatures, 
as  well  as  the  intrinsic  importance  of  the  question  involved,  require  from  the 
Committee  and  the  Legislature,  the  most  deliberate  and  respectful  considera- 
tion. It  is  believed  that  the  history  of  legislation  in  this  country  affords  no 
instance  in  which  a  stronger  expression  has  been  made,  if  regard  be  had  to 
numbers,  the  wealth,  or  the  intelligence  of  the  petitioners.'' 

The  Report  thus  proceeds  ; 

"  The  Committee  entertain  no  doubt  that  the  numerous  petitioners  for  the 
discontinuance  of  the  Sabbath  mail,  and  the  delivery  of  letters  from  the  post 
offices,  have  generally  acted  from  pure  motives,  and  with  a  reference  to  what 
they  consider  the  best  interest  of  the  country. 

"  They  do  not  ask  Congress  to  impose  certain  duties  on  any  portion  of  citi- 
zens, which  may  interfere  with  their  religious  opinions,  but  to  relieve  from  the 
performance  of  such  duties. 

"  The  transportation  of  the  mail  is  a  great  governmental  operation,  and 
the  petitioners  believe  it  should  be  suspended  on  the  Sabbath,  and  the  post 
offices  closed,  out  of  respect  to  the  day,  as  well  as  the  business  of  the  legisla- 
tive, judicial,  and  executive  branches  of  the  government.  They  did  not,  pro- 
bably, consider  that  greater  difficulty  could  arise  in  designating  the  first  day  of 
the  week  as  the  Christian  Sabbath,  for  this  purpose,  than  had  been  incurred  in 
the  instances  referred  to.  It  is  not  considered  by  the  Committee,  that  the 
petitioners  ask  the  introduction  of  any  new  principle  into  our  laws,  but  the 
extension  of  one  which  has  already  been  recognized.  In  the  policy  of  the 
measure  desired,  the  Committee  believe  the  petitioners  are  mistaken,  but  they 
do  not  consider  the  attempt  made  by  them,  as  tending  to  form  the  j  ustly  odious 
combination  of  church  and  State." 

The  Report  also  in  conclusion  "  earnestly  recommends  the  repeal 
of  so  much  of  the  eleventh  section  of  the  post  office  law,  of  March, 
1825,  as  requires  post  masters  to  deliver  letters,  newspapers,  Sic, 
on  the  Sabbath." 

Though  on  some  points,  their  Report  is  adverse  to  the  peti- 
tioners, yet,  wherever  the  Committee  differ  from  them,  they  treat 
them  respectfully,  giving  facts  and  arguments,  instead  of  insidious 
insinuation  and  unmerited  rebuke. 

The  arguments  for  continuing  the  transportation  of  the  mail,  are 
derived  wholly  from  considerations  of  expediency; — the  conve- 
nience and  gain  of  uninterrupted  and  rapid  intelligence,  and  its 
necessity  to  protect  the  citizens  from  the  evils  of  speculation. 
That  some  convenience  and  immediate  gain  may  be  the  result  of 
the  constant  movement  of  the  mail,  and  that  there  may  be  some 
evils  incident  to  its  discontinuance  on  the  Sabbath,  may  be  ad- 


21 

mitted.  But  so  also  would  there  be  some  immediate  gain,  should 
Congress,  and  the  courts,  and  heads  of  departments,  and  custom 
houses,  transact  business  on  the  Sabbath ;  and  there  are  some  evils 
incident  to  this  general  suspension  of  secular  business  in  all  the 
departments  of  the  government.  The  merchant  also,  and  the 
manufacturer,  and  the  mechanic,  and  farmer,  might  be  able  to  turn 
the  Sabbath  to  some  immediate  good  account,  and  to  avoid  some 
evils  which  attend  its  observance.  But  the  question  is,  will  these 
temporary  gains  balance  the  permanent  loss  which  will  result  from 
a  general  relaxation  of  morals,  produced  by  the  rapid  disappear- 
ance of  the  Sabbath  from  our  land  ? 

The  subject  is  now  fairly  before  the  nation,  and  it  is  the  most 
important  one  on  which  a  free  people  were  ever  called  to  decide. 
It  is,  wdiether  the  Sabbath,  as  to  all  national  influence,  shall  be 
blotted  out,  or  maintained  ;  for  its  name,  as  a  holiday,  will  be  of 
no  avail,  when  its  moral  energies  shall  have  ceased. 

This  is  no  time  for  petulance  and  invective.  We  are  now  pre- 
eminently free  and  happy,  and  with  absolute  certainty,  our  repub- 
lican institutions  may  be  made  perpetual,  by  the  moral  energies  of 
the  Sabbath,  and  not  without.  But  no  coercive  legislation  can 
preserve  it.  Unless  the  nation  will  awake,  and  by  a  spontaneous 
public  sentiment  arise  for  the  preservation  of  the  Sabbath,  it  is 
gone.  For  the  temptations  of  the  seaboard,  and  steamboats,  and 
canals,  are  immense  ;  far  and  wide  do  they  put  in  motion  the 
streams  of  business  ;  and  as  our  millions  multiply,  and  the  power  of 
habit,  and  the  tide  of  business  shall  increase,  w^e  may  as  well  at- 
tempt to  stop  the  rolling  of  the  ocean,  or  the  currents  of  our  mighty 
rivers.  Now  we  may  perpetuate  our  republic,  upon  condition  that 
we  will  observe  the  Sabbath  ;  and  the  world,  and  heaven,  and  hell, 
are  looking  on  to  witness  our  decision. 


fa 


